North Road (earlier called Lambs Lane) around 1900 – from a T.C. Booth of Loftus postcard – the date being assumed from the postmark which the card carries of August 1912. Adam Cuthbert asked: “What was the building that’s now the road to North Road car park and when did it get knocked down?” Eric Johnson tells us: ”Ally Watson’s dairy was in the building with Hodgson’s sign. Further up North Road was access between the parish hall and this building to Laurie Gibson’s butchers barn and slaughter-house. The bottom half of this building was used to store the stalls for the Market Place, the upper part being occupied as a house by a family called Lindsey. All were demolished along with the council yard for the car park. The house built out onto the road with the lancet window is Forge House, with the smithy next towards the parish hall. Ally Watson later used the smithy building for his dairy and milk round. The first shop on the left was Gibsons butchers. The shop opposite used to belong to Billy Clark, no relation, who played for Loftus Albion in the Northern League. Then Jim Kelly’s off-licence, his wife was a member of the Trillo (ice cream) family. Clarks shop next to the butchers was formerly Cyril Whitlock’s grocers.” Can anybody assist with dating this alteration?
Image courtesy of Jean Hall and thanks to Eric Johnson for the updates.
Condells electrical shop located next door to Mary Kelly’s served the community for a number of years